Electric heating - as good as burning money?

cutecatgirl

I'm going to look at a rented flat today and it only has electric heating. I've heard from friends that it is really costly to run which means you can basically never use it and hence you are always freezing!

I'd really appreciate any experiences of this type of heating as apart from that the flat sounds great.

Thanks xxx

Guy_Montag

I have electric heating & I hate it.

It's night store heating, but it's still expensive. The room is warm in the morning, but by the evening it's run out of heat. You have to watch the weather forecast so you can predict when to turn it up/down.

Try to find a place with GCH, it's sooooo much better.

cutecatgirl

this is pretty much what I've been thinking! I think I'm going to go and have a look anyway but I know in my heart of hearts that gch is better

barrymoney

I've had electric night storage heating, but in my new place I have GCH. The electric wasn't as bad as I expected. As Guy says, it doesn't allow good timing of the heat, but on the other hand you aren't fiddling with it all day. Mine had flaps you could open in the evening to boost the heat (that feature worked ok, not amazingly well). Theres also less to go wrong compared to GCH though if you're renting I guess thats not such an issue. If the system looks new and well maintained I wouldn't be tooo put off. I certainly wasn't freezing, it kept my flat rather warm.

tr3mor

It depends on what kind of flat it is.

Last year I lived in the top floor of some 3 storey new build flats. In the winter we used 3 of the storage heaters in the flat to keep it nice and warm. Comparing summer vs winter electricity bills I would guess that it cost us roughly £100 to heat the flat during the winter.

I would recommend leaving the heaters set to full charge and minimum discharge as the best way to keep a fairly constant temperature.

mlz1413

When you view ask if they have any knowledge of heating costs, if LL has lived there (or even had it empty in winter) then they should be able to advise.

If you do end up going for this flat make sure your with a cheap supplier!

cutecatgirl

thanks guys this is great. I'm starting to feel slightly better. The thign is this flat is in a great area and there's really not much else about at the moment.

If couse if I go for it I'll be doing te old price comparison

Guy_Montag

Also if the rent is cheaper than a gas heated flat, is it that enough to offset the bills?

You must live in the only part of the country where there's not an abundance of new-build flats.

cutecatgirl

Guy_Montag wrote: »

Also if the rent is cheaper than a gas heated flat, is it that enough to offset the bills?

You must live in the only part of the country where there's not an abundance of new-build flats.

Perhaps but it depends on the price difference.

I don't particularly want to live in a new build. Besides, I live in an expensive part of the country and most new builds are way out of my price range. I don't really understand what the quantity of new builds has to do with the relative merits of GCH v. electric but I look froward to finding out.

Guy_Montag

cutecatgirl wrote: »

Perhaps but it depends on the price difference.

I don't particularly want to live in a new build. Besides, I live in an expensive part of the country and most new builds are way out of my price range. I don't really understand what the quantity of new builds has to do with the relative merits of GCH v. electric but I look froward to finding out.

Sorry, you said there was a shortage of flats, I was just making the comment that elsewhere in the country if there's one rental type that's in abundance, it's flats. But if you don't want to live in a new-build (& I understand why), then that cuts your options down.

Edited to add: I reckon I pay somewhere between £10-30 pcm month more for my electric heating than for gas/electric, but it's hard to tell, what between price fluctuations & living in different types of house/flat.

cutecatgirl

Thanks that really helpful re: difference in price. i will let you know